Mayor disagrees with two-week delay

PRINCETON — Mayor Keith Cain verbally scolded four commissioners Monday night after they voted to table a drainage contract with Farnsworth Group to evaluate the sanitary and storm sewer issues in various parts of town.

The evaluation will include the recent flooding issues in the Dover Road/Euclid Avenue area and Greencroft/Metro Center area. The cost estimate totals about $9,100. The engineering firm would then make recommendation for fixes to the city’s sanitary and storm sewer issues in these areas of town, said Princeton City Manager Jeff Clawson. It would take 60-90 days to put together an evaluation for the permanent fixes.

Commissioner Joel Quiram said this was a huge issue for the city with many sewer lines in town being more than 100 years old.

Cain said delaying this drainage agreement would only delay the project that needs to move forward in light of the flooding around town in April.

Some commissioners felt the city had paid another engineering firm to study this issue in the past and paid for improvements that didn’t help. Commissioners Bob Warren and Ray Mabry said they wanted to get more information before approving the contract.

Resident Laura Favia said (during a public comment period at the end of the meeting), she has been waiting for five years for city officials to address these issues and felt waiting two more weeks to deal with the issue of changing an engineering firm wasn’t acceptable to her.

“Two hours is too long for me,” she said, indicating the delay may last another year or even two more years.

The vote to table the contract was approved on a 4-1 vote with Cain voting against the motion.

In other business, commissioners voted to place a stop sign at the intersection of Dallas Street and Eastmor Drive and held first readings on ordinances dealing with registering kegs to deter underage drinking of alcohol at parties and establishing a social host liability laws to send a clear message to adults providing alcohol to underage youth isn’t acceptable in Princeton.

Princeton Police Chief Tom Root said these ordinances would make adults responsible if they served alcohol to underage persons at parties held in their homes.

Princeton Tourism/Marketing Director Joni Hunt gave a presentation on some directional signs to be erected around town to give tourists an idea where the city’s assets are located. She said 30 signs, some small and some larger, would be placed around Princeton after permits were allocated from the Illinois Department of Transportation for the signs.

Hunt also indicated signs welcoming visitors to Princeton that are situated at the entrances to town would also be replaced.